Plastic containers are used for packaging and storing a wide variety of products. Such containers are in particularly wide use for packaging and storing food products, particularly powdered food products such as coffee creamer and the like. It is also often desirable to include a dispensing-type arrangement in containers which are used to store such powered food products.
In a typical package arrangement, the plastic container has a threaded neck portion that is configured to receive a complimentarily threaded cap. Generally, a seal is placed on the container, over the container land surface, and sealed thereto. The land surface is that portion of the container atop the neck portion, on which the container cap rests when it is threaded to the container. The seal may be formed of paper, plastic, foil or a combination, e.g., a laminate, thereof.
The seal is placed on the container for a number of reasons. One function of the seal is to maintain the food product quality standards by sealing the food product to prevent or retard spoilage, such as by oxidation. In addition, such seals often provide tamper or pilfer indication, thereby assuring both the manufacturer and the consumer that the food product is unadulterated.
Known seals are typically broken, and the seal fully, or at least partially removed, to access the contents of the container. Thus, while such a seal provides the benefit of maintaining the product fresh when it is stored, for example, on a store shelf, once it is opened and the seal is broken, the shelf life of the product may be greatly reduced.
A wide variety of dispenser-type arrangements are known in the art. Dispensing configurations include the commonly recognized shaker-type arrangement. Also known are dispensing openings or ports which permit, for example, a spoon to be inserted through the opening to remove a measure quantity of the stored material.
In one known type of dispenser design, a perforated cap is positioned over the seal, and snapped onto the container. In use, the perforated cap is removed from the container, the seal is then broken and the perforated cap replaced on the container. It will be recognized that in such an arrangement, the perforated cap my be easily misplaced, thus effectively losing any controlled dispensing capability for the container.
Another dispenser design arrangement includes a guillotine-like rotating slide that has one or more openings therein. The slide may include a removable portion thus providing a seal for the container prior to first use thereof. In a variation of the guillotine-like arrangement, the container may include a seal positioned between the rotating slide portion and the container to provide a seal for the container prior to first use. Notwithstanding that this type of dispensing arrangement is satisfactory, it is readily seen that such an arrangement can be quite costly given that most such containers are disposed of after use.
Accordingly, there continues to be a need for a cost effective container seal which provides an extended product shelf life by maintaining the product fresh during storage and shipment, which liner maintains its sealing characteristics after first use.